Melbourne cybersecurity startup ResponSight has raised $1.15 million in a seed funding led by Carthona Capital, with follow on investment from Black Sheep Capital. The startup is responsible for providing risk solutions to large enterprises through reporting and analysing security breaches, one of only a few home grown cybersecurity startups working in this space.

ResponSight’s technology detects hackers using behavioural analytics, using differences in user activity to proactively alert and isolate threats. The startup has re-built the approach and the proactive responses to cyber threats from the ground up.

CEO of ResponSight Jeff Paine said, “Australia has had few security companies in recent years, so this round is testament to the Australian startup scene­ that we can do what Silicon Valley and Israel do. Gartner predicts the cybersecurity market will reach $81.6 billion in 2016, so ResponSight is well placed to take advantage of this.”

A significant proportion of the funding will be put towards the startup’s international growth across this year and next. A focus will be placed on hiring new staff and building the infrastructure to support the company’s global outlook.

Traditionally security services have been built on legacy ware and reactive tactics that are inefficient when looking at the chain of response. ResponSight utilises User and Entity Behaviour Analytics (UEBA) to identify threats based on unusual user behaviour and works on the end point as close as possible.

ResponSight is targeting banks, insurers and professional services and is educating each sector on taking a proactive rather than reactive approach to cybersecurity threats and breaches.

“ResponSight is focused on a very specific area of behavioural analytics that is quite different to traditional security approaches, in that we are focusing only on the behaviour of authorised users as a way to detect attacks,” Paine said.

“When an attacker takes over a computer or gets into a corporate network, their activity stands out as very different to the real user, allowing for rapid response and remediation.”

James Synge, partner at Carthona Capital, said the firm saw an opportunity with ResponSight to challenge how hackers are currently detected with existing technology inside large corporate networks.

“Our investment in ResponSight highlights that there are real opportunities in Australia for enterprise security technology startups to participate on the global stage,” said Synge.

UpGuard received US$17 million in a Series B round co-led by new investor Pelion Venture Partners and existing investor Square Peg Capital. The funding for both Australian founded cybersecurity startups is perfectly timed after the embarrassing Census debacle, which has proven that Australia is overdue for a new way of approaching cybersecurity and internal and external cyber threats.